Geology, geography and global energy

Scientific and Technical Journal

Applying of unmanned aerial vehicle in the study of forest conditions

2015. №4, pp. 60-69

Buzmakov S.A. - D.Sc. in Geography, Professor, Perm State National Research University, 15, Bukireva st., Perm, 614990, Russian Federation, lep@psu.ru

Andreev D.N. - C.Sc. in Geography, Senior Lecturer, Perm State National Research University, 15, Bukireva st., Perm, 614990, Russian Federation, adn87@yandex.ru

Sannikov P.Yu. - C.Sc. in Geography, Assistant, Perm State National Research University, 15, Bukireva st., Perm, 614990, Russian Federation, sol1430@gmail.com

Nowadays, unmanned aerial vehicles are widely used for various tasks of fundamental researches and applied studies. The applying of unmanned aircraft claimed in geological, geographic, biological, archeological research. In the practical application included counting quantity of population of large mammals in the hunting grounds, monitoring damage gas and oil pipelines, control of the state high voltage power lines, land surveying, cadastre, inventory of houses, creation of thematic geographic information databases, a wide range of engineering survey and engineering design. In addition, one of the important areas of the study was the condition of forests, forestry, plant pathology; monitoring fires.The article presents a brief literature review of the world experience in the use of unmanned aircraft for research of forests. The problems of the use of unmanned aircraft for forest inventory, timber inventory, phytopathological research, monitoring points of burning forests and fire situations, evaluation of anthropogenic impacts on forest ecosystems and fixing the facts of illegal logging. The general characteristic of the technical features of the unmanned aircraft used in the Perm State National Research University was done. We describe the characteristics such as speed, maximum flight duration, working height of the machine. Also disclosed is the payload unit, the order of assembling complex, the functions of operator and take-off man, radio management features and limitations for the aircraft using are presented. Separately are characterized by product specifications aerial photography, made a comparison with images taken from space. The main part of the article is devoted to the results of own data receiving and processing of aerial photography. The basic stages of photogrammetric processing of the image in Photoscan and Photomod, needed to create the orthophoto were described. The list includes steps such as conversion of GNSS-receiver data, the calculation of the coordinates of images, the spatial alignment of the pictures and the creation of a rarefied point cloud, optimization errors, creating a dense point cloud and its classification, the creation of textures, digital terrain models, digital elevation models, and export orthophoto. The prospects of using unmanned aircraft for the study of forest conditions as well as the difficulties associated with processing of materials survey were analyzed.

Key words: беспилотный летательный аппарат, исследования состояния лесов, фотограмметрическая обработка, ортофотоплан, цифровая модель рельефа, unmanned aerial vehicle, studies of forests conditions, photogrammetric processing, orthophoto, digital terrain model

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